I think there are five female characters who have any sort of real role — Nazca, Vorchenza/the Spider, Sofia Salvara, and the Berangias sisters. You see a few other random females in various roles, the black apothecaries, as guards, the prostitute Locke doesn't sleep with, as guards, the initiate of Aza Guilla who lets Jean inside, the woman who sold them the candles as children, there was a girl in the rival children's gang, etc.

But I think it's true that, because Sabetha is gone, there's an under-representation of main female characters in the story. In a way it's sort of understandable. There aren't a lot of major characters who could have easily been made female. Bug could have been, but then it would have only been another female character who dies to motivate Locke.

Nazca is a tricky point. She comes close to being fridged (which is a term to refer to a female character whose only real purpose is to die and provide motivation to a main male character). But Locke doesn't love her, so there's only so much motivation supplied. He's angry, but it's only when his gang dies that he really gets pissed off and seeks revenge. Nazca's death is primarily to motivate her father into being so angry that he'd kill the Grey King on sight. There were other ways that could have happened, and I think it would have been fun to see her interact with Locke some more ... but the whole story would have needed to be changed.

If one of the sons is killed instead, or if some other plot is used, Nazca would still have died shortly after at Barsavi's celebration party, when the Grey King kills him and the rest of his children. To keep her alive longer than that would change the whole dynamic of the story. And even keeping her alive that long would not have offered her any greater chance for characterization; even as it is, she gets more character and dialogue than any of her brothers, and almost as much as her father.

So while there were other opportunities to introduce female characters, I don't think Lynch could have done much different with Nazca unless he changed the story he was writing.

But it's definitely interesting that sexism doesn't really seem to be a problem in this world, except for in the story that's told later about the prostitutes fighting to get free from their male pimps. There are more men than women, though, both in the main pantheon and in the background. You could say that's because most of the story takes place either in the criminal gangs or in the highest points of power, but that begs the question of where all the women are.

The new book, Republic of Thieves, is supposed to have Sabetha in it, I think. I'm looking forward to that. A female Locke Lamora? Yes please.